The Thousands

My expectations were low. Superhero fanboys are already lowing their dislike of this Seth-Rogenised (read: stoner, slacker) superhero yarn. Surprisingly, it’s an utter delight; screenwriters Rogen and Evan Goldberg win through audacious silliness. The tone isn’t as grim as Kick-Ass nor as hyperactively narcissistic as Scott Pilgrim. Director Michel Gondry injects his trademark visual inventiveness without papier-maché or whimsically oversized props.

Well… the best prop is the Black Beauty, a gleaming 1966 Imperial Crown sedan whose increasingly preposterous capabilities had me hooting with laughter. There’s a childish glee in this film’s unconvincing disguises, slapstick henchman deaths and eagerness to destroy property. Even the Hornet, Britt Reid (Rogen), is exuberantly awed by the chaos.

Jay Chou’s flat delivery suggests he learned his dialogue phonetically (“I can barely speak English!” he demurs at one stage), but Kato does the arse-kicking, invents the technology, puts a killer rosette on a flat white and even attracts the girl (a weirdly sidelined Cameron Diaz). Christoph Waltz is magnificent as a villain saddened by his inability to intimidate. But the shifting power balance between coolly capable Kato and his blustering but rather incompetent boss is more interesting, and subversive, than the crime-fighting.